This past week was a lot of fun with the 3rd Ugly Covers Competition. Tam did her usual great wrap-up which was posted yesterday. If you don’t know who is the winner you should check out her post. She’s also quite artistic – when you see the post you’ll understand. *g*
You will notice in the coming weeks an increase in “classic” books being reviewed on the site. I think this is a good thing and I hope you do too. M/M romance didn’t just start 5 or 10 years ago but decades earlier, and the reviewers are all gearing up to read and review all the best gay novels in this past century. We are also going to be doing some joint posting with Speak Its Name on those books that were published more than 40 years ago, which is a tentative timeline that Erastes and I agreed on. Hope you like the new direction. This doesn’t mean that there will be less “contemporary” M/M romances reviewed here – far from it – we will continue to post as many reviews as we did before and probably more.:)
I’m sure that many of you missed Stuart who was not on the site on Thursday, his usual spot. He asked me to give you his love and tell you that he’ll be baaaack. He and his partner are currently on a cruise in Eastern Canada where it’s pretty cold right now – he’s very brave.
Today Tam is testing your knowledge of M/M books and their authors. If you haven’t tried the quiz you should, just to see how you’ll score……no, not that kind of scoring.:)
Also on the site today Bristlecone Pine Press is giving away a copy of the ebook version of Ransom by Lee Rowan which has just been re-released with a new cover.
In addition, I reviewed Held Captive by Joanne Kells.
Tomorrow I’m posting an opinion piece on cover art which is something about which I’m very interested, and I hope you are too. The timing seems right because we just finished our 3rd Ugly Covers competition where we had some splendid examples of how not to do it. Last time I did a mini poll on this topic 70% of bloggers indicated that they were strongly influenced or moderately influenced by cover art when making book purchases. I hope that both readers and authors will comment and give their opinions.
Tomorrow we’re going to have a lot of fun again because Aunt Lynn and Leslie are duking it out – sorry I meant they’re writing duelling reviews of Ethan Day’s newest book As You Are. You may remember that there were duelling reviews of his first book Self Preservation however, unfortunately only one review of SP (which incidentally was written by Lynn) is still available here.
Also on Monday the Amber Allure “free” book is Muse by Clare London.
On Tuesday Victor J. Banis is guest blogging about The Golden Age of Gay Fiction but before he talks about the book he has a few things on his mind and he wants to share.:)
Jenre will be posting her review of the classic M/M novel The Charioteer which many readers regard as the quintessential gay romantic novel of its time. I can’t wait to see what she thinks of Mary Renault’s masterpiece.
The Amber Allure “free”book will be Reincarnation by Christiane France
This week only Erastes is moving to Wednesday (she will be back in her regular Tuesday spot next week) but she’s keeping it a secret what the topic of her post will be. She does that sometimes when she doesn’t want to be scooped, as we say in the newspaper world.
In addition, on Wednesday Bristlecone Pine Press is offering another “free” book – the second book in the Royal Navy series by Lee Rowan, Winds of Change.
Also on Wednesday Val will be reviewing Ready To Serve by James Buchanan.
My interview with Rowan McBride which was scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed to Tuesday, October 27.
On Thursday Leslie is reviewing The Man From C.A.M.P a fun classic by Victor J. Banis.
I may be reviewing Becoming Us by Anah Crow and Dianne Fox as well as a couple of shorts.
On Friday the boys are here so I’ll be busy.
Jordan Castillo Price is guest blogging on Friday but she hasn’t told me what she’ll talk about.
Lynn is reviewing Bitter Creek’s Redemption by T.A. Chase
On Saturday I’m reviewing Almost Like Being in Love by Steve Kluger, a very funny book and Jenre is reviewing The Elegant Corpse by A.M. Riley, Lemon Yellow by T.C. Blue and Broken by Sage Whistler.
Great week ahead again! Can’t wait to try and win Winds of Change, since I loved Ransom. And dying to see that review of The Man from C.A.M.P.
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It all sounds like a load of fun.
JFM
I think Leslie’s review of The Man From C.A.M.P. will take into account that this book was written in another time for a different audience.:)
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I hope you enjoy the other posts this week. Victor’s post is, as usual, Victor:-DD
Heh, yes, I’m sure it will count as a period peice now. I’ve been A Man from UNCLE fan for years, so a gay version/parody with that in the mix should be fun. (That’s assuming one doesn’t count The Man from UNCLE as the gay version of itself! :D)
JFM
I love The Man From U.N.C.L.E with David McCallum starring as Illya Kuryakin. One of my favourite spy shows. You could be right that TMFU could be the gay version.:)
I love all the reviews but I love all the other stuff, guest posts and different perspectives on the industry as a whole that often gives us readers a bit of a look at what goes on before the book gets to us readers and the publishing industry in general.
Another busy busy week.
Tam
One of the changes I’m trying to make on the site is to get different perspectives from authors and others (eg Stuart who is a breath of fresh air). I hope that the regulars and other bloggers like the new directions.
Sounds like a great week ahead. I’m specially looking forward to Jenre’s review of The Charioteer, as that’s one of my all time favourites. It’s not a quick read, and the first time around I found the ending ambiguous, but since then I’ve been involved in chapter by chapter discussions, and understand the book much better. I’m very interested in seeing Jenre’s thoughts.
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I’m also keen to see Victor’s piece on “The Golden Age of Gay Fiction”. I’ve been reading all about E.M. Forster and Christopher Isherwood lately, and reflecting on how life has changed in the years since they first started writing.
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And all the other things too! It’s going to be a good week.
Gaye
You will see more books like the Charioteer and The Lord Won’t Mind reviewed on the site in addition to new M/M books.
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If you like Victor you’ll enjoy his post on The Golden Age of Gay Fiction, because before he gets into the topic he talks about what he wants to talk about.:)
I’m looking forward to your opinion piece about cover art!!! God knows we’ve discussed it a lot on this blog and we’ve seen all kinds – the gorgeous, the bland and the unforgivable. I hope you have some nice illustrations to support your opinion :-DD **loves looking at covers**
And ooooh, you’re reviewing Almost Like Being In Love?? I want to see that!!! That book was terrific. And Saturday is very good to me, since I can’t visit your blog at work anymore :-(.
Mary, I had that problem too until Christian pointed me to the mobile version (mobile.gayromance.org).
That one does work incl the pics.
Seems like you are able to put more in a week every time Wave.
Mary
You should listen to Ingrid. Christian set up the mobile version of the site for bloggers who want to access it from work – it’s not a short form of the site it has all of the features, including messaging.
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Almost Like Being In Love is a wonderful romp. I couldn’t believe all the things that Travis did to find and get his man!!
The Charioteer is one of my favourite ever books, so I’ll look forward to what you have to say for sure!
🙂
Axxx